How to Execute Command in C# ?

It is normal practice to open the command prompt and execute

commands. The command when executed shows the result onto the
screen. There are many commands that we execute daily such as dir,
find etc. C# programmers have to code in diverse satiations. A
situation may arise when you want to execute a (shell) command from
the C# application. Don’t Worry!!! Here is the code to do so…

In the code given below we create a process i.e. a command process

and then invoke the command that we want to execute. The result of
the command is stored in a string variable, which can then be used for
further references. The command execution can happen in two ways,
synchronously and asynchronously. In the asynchronous command
execution we just invoke the command execution using a thread that
runs independently.

using System;

using System.Threading;

namespace ExecuteCommand

public class Program

static void Main(string[] args)

string command = String.Empty;

// Write to the console.

Console.Write("Enter the command you wish to execute: ");

// Get the command you wish to execute.

command = Console.ReadLine().Trim();
 // Execute the command synchronously.

ExecuteCmd exe = new ExecuteCmd();

exe.ExecuteCommandSync(command);

// Execute the command asynchronously.

exe.ExecuteCommandAsync(command);

// Your' done !!!

Console.WriteLine("\nDone !");

Console.ReadLine();

public class ExecuteCmd

#region ExecuteCommand Sync and Async

/// <summary>

/// Executes a shell command synchronously.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="command">string command</param>

/// <returns>string, as output of the command.</returns>

public void ExecuteCommandSync(object command)

try

// create the ProcessStartInfo using "cmd" as the

program to be run, and "/c " as the parameters.

// Incidentally, /c tells cmd that we want it to

execute the command that follows, and then exit.
 System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + command);

// The following commands are needed to redirect the

standard output.

//This means that it will be redirected to the

Process.StandardOutput StreamReader.

procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;

procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;

// Do not create the black window.

procStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

// Now we create a process, assign its ProcessStartInfo

and start it

System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new

System.Diagnostics.Process();

proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;

proc.Start();

// Get the output into a string

string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();

// Display the command output.

Console.WriteLine(result);

catch (Exception objException)

// Log the exception

/// <summary>

/// Execute the command Asynchronously.

 /// </summary>

/// <param name="command">string command.</param>

public void ExecuteCommandAsync(string command)

try

//Asynchronously start the Thread to process the

Execute command request.

Thread objThread = new Thread(new

ParameterizedThreadStart(ExecuteCommandSync));

//Make the thread as background thread.

objThread.IsBackground = true;

//Set the Priority of the thread.

objThread.Priority = ThreadPriority.AboveNormal;

//Start the thread.

objThread.Start(command);

catch (ThreadStartException objException)

// Log the exception

catch (ThreadAbortException objException)

// Log the exception

catch (Exception objException)

// Log the exception

}
 }

#endregion

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